Integrated care pilots in England revisited

The purpose of this paper is to explore the outcomes identified by the evaluation of the national programme of integrated care pilots (ICPs) in England in the context of wider policies designed to deliver integrated care and to consider the challenges presented to policy makers and evaluators in distilling usable insights to promote effective policy.

Also, this paper considers why evaluation findings appear limited in their impact on policy in the field of integrated care. Views as to how evaluation might be undertaken so that it generates actionable insights are advanced.

Supporting integrated care in practice: Perceptions of a national support programme for the development of New Care Models in England

This paper investigates the perceptions of key informants on a national support programme for the development of New Care Models in England (2015/16 to 2017/18). It focuses on the perceived facilitators and barriers affecting the development and implementation of the New Care Models programme and offers some insight into the role of national level support in enabling local integration initiatives. Besides the paper demonstrates that analysis of facilitators and challenges with respect to the national support of implementation of integrated care initiatives should move beyond the focus on separate influencing factors and address the tensions that the complex ...

Skills building seminar: Capacity-building for implementing integrated care

The significance of integrated care as a means for improving health outcomes and effectiveness and sustainability of health and care systems is widely acknowledged. Integrated care is a central element in many on-going or planned healthcare system reforms, however, the main challenge remains of how to build relevant capacity and know-how for the successful implementation of integrated care. Capacity-building is both the foundation and aspiration of SCIROCCO Exchange EU Health Programme funded project. The project aims to facilitate access to tailored, evidence-based support and improvement planning by recognising different staring points, or levels of maturity of healthcare systems in Europe

SCIROCCO Exchange - Capacity-building support for integrated care

Integrated care is a recognised solution to address the challenge of ageing population. Hence, it is important to commit to opportunities that increase the readiness and capacity of regions to implement integrated care. Knowledge transfer has been greatly recognised as an effective enabler of capacity-building support. However, effective knowledge transfer and capacity-building support requires dedicated support and infrastructure to ensure that the flow of appropriate information and knowledge between adopting and transferring entities is tailored to the local context and maturity of the particular healthcare system seeking the support. This is a precondition to help health and care authorities to ...

Tuberculosis, HIV, and viral hepatitis diagnostics in eastern Europe and central Asia: high time for integrated and people-centred services

The international medical journal, The Lancet, has published an article demonstrating the benefits of integrated and people-centred services in responding to the rise of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis in eastern European and central Asian countries of the WHO European Region.

Mapping family integrated care practices in the neonatal units across the UK

Family integrated care (FIC), where parents are empowered through structured training to form an important component of the caregiving team, is fast becoming the standard of care across neonatal units in the UK. The Parents of Preterm Infants (POPPY) survey in 20101 found variability of practice and inadequate facilities to support even family centred care (FCC). To explore the change in the parental participatory model in the neonatal unit over the last 8 years, this article designed and conducted an online questionnaire survey. The aim was to explore current practice, understanding and strategy for FIC using the Qualtrics web ...

Unknown makes unloved—A case study on improving integrated health and social care in the Netherlands using a participatory approach

Many initiatives integrating health and social care have been implemented in order to provide adequate care and support to older people living at home. Further development of existing initiatives requires iterative processes of developing, implementing and evaluating improvements to current practice. This case study provides insight into the process of improving an existing integrated care initiative in the Netherlands. Using a participatory approach, researchers and local stakeholders collaborated to develop and implement activities to further improve collaboration between health and social care professionals. Improvement activities included interprofessional meetings focussing on reflection and mutual learning and workplace visits. Researchers evaluated the ...

Exploring improvement plans of fourteen European integrated care sites for older people with complex needs

Integrated care programmes are increasingly being put in place to provide care to older people living at home. However, knowledge about further improving integrated care is limited. In fourteen integrated care sites in Europe, plans to improve existing ways of working were designed, implemented and evaluated to enlarge the understanding of what works and with what outcomes when improving integrated care. This paper provides insight into the existing ways that the sites were working with respect to integrated care, their perceived difficulties and their plans for working towards improvement. 

Government leadership that supports community-lead integrated care: An analysis of advances and missteps

Integrated care that substantively impacts population health as well as provides quality care requires buy-in, engagement and commitment over time by a plethora of  government and community groups. There is considerable evidence of the complexity of care models that work such that long term commitment is required to truly impact health. These days, beyond work opportunities, most municipal government and community leaders realise that good quality health services are critical to retaining and recruiting residents, especially noteworthy as an issue in rural communities.  How do places manage bottom-up, top-down tensions as politics and control issues intervene across differrent levels of ...

Integrated care for the inhabitants of the city Leuven: Protocol of the ZORGZAAM Leuven integrated care project

In Flanders, the prevalence of chronic diseases is high and still increasing partially due to aging of the population and partially due to other reasons like surviving acute diseases or cancer. The aim of the Zorgzaam Leuven project is to test the impact of the implementation of a complex intervention based on the principles of integrated care for a well defined population of approximately 100.000 inhabitants in Belgium.